CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — One month after SpaceX successfully landed its Falcon 9 rocket booster on an ocean platform, the aerospace company did it again after delivering a Japanese communications satellite into orbit early Friday morning.
SpaceX launched the Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, around 1:20 a.m. A live web broadcast showed the first-stage booster touching down vertically on a barge in the Atlantic, off the Florida coast.
"Woohoo!!" SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote on Twitter after the landing.
It is the second time the company has successfully landed a rocket at sea. Employees cheered and chanted "U.S.A." on April 8 after the Falcon 9 landed safely following a space station supply run for NASA.
SpaceX expects to start reusing its unmanned Falcon rockets as early as this summer to save money and lower costs.
SpaceX released a statement Monday speculating that a successful landing was "unlikely" because the Falcon 9 rocket would be "subject to extreme velocities and re-entry heating." SpaceX CEO Elon Musk upgraded the chances to "maybe even" shortly before the launch.
Cox Media Group
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